Mom, I know that you're tired
by ShipperHeart91
Summary: It took her forty minutes to build up the courage to tell Daisy to stop. MaySkye, one-shot. Minor spoilers for the 5th season.


**A/N: Fair warning, I haven't watched 5x04 yet, so there may be a few mistakes. I just read somewhere that it would be really angsty if Daisy was pitted against May, and I knew I had to write this fight. I'm sorry, you guys, but this is how I cope with my pain...**

* * *

Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. The second the door opened and the face of her opponent was revealed, there was only one feeling in May's heart. Denial. Hopeless, stubborn, stupid denial.

 _No. Please, God, no. Not her._

May could deal with literally anything else, but not this. She shook her head, hoping that this whole twisted thing was a nightmare she would wake up from any minute now.

She didn't.

'' Let the fight begin.'' Someone announced excitedly. _A fight to the death._

May's eyes found Daisy's, terror evident in the girl's face. One of them had to do something. One of them had to hit first. One of them had to die so that the other one could live. In May's mind, there was no doubt who that someone would be.

She took a deep breath and then approached Daisy, who remained still, her eyes staring at May but unable to focus. Once she had closed the distance between them, Melinda stopped.

'' Look at me.'' She said softly.

Mechanically, Daisy obeyed, but her posture did not change. Her eyes were wide with fear, pleading with May to find a way out of this.

'' May.'' She whispered, not knowing what else she _could_ say, other than the name of the person she trusted and loved the most. '' May, I can't.''

 _This wasn't the plan._

May shook her head and smiled, framing Daisy's face between her palms. '' You have to.'' She said, a tear sliding down her cheek.

'' No.'' Daisy's voice was broken, her body trembling with fear.

May looked at her sympathetically and placed a quick kiss on her student's forehead. '' It's alright.'' She reassured her.

'' Fight!'' Someone yelled from behind her and May knew they were running out of time.

The older agent took a step back. '' Daisy,'' she said urgently, '' Take a breath.''

But Daisy couldn't breathe. Not when she was being asked to kill May. Her knees dropped out from under her, but May grabbed her before she could fall. Daisy wrapped her arms tightly around May's shoulders and clawed desperately at her shirt.

''Hey.'' May said, her voice still soft. '' You have to stay alive. You are the only one that can save the others.''

Daisy kept holding May, unable to move or think or do anything other than let herself feel safe in an embrace that wouldn't last.

'' Daisy.'' May repeated. Two guards approached and May knew that she had to do something soon, or else they would both end up dead. She shoved Daisy away more forcefully than she would ever want to. The girl grunted as she hit the ground face down, her breath knocked out of her.

" Get up and fight me." May said loudly enough for their captors to hear. The guards immediately retreated to their corners, satisfied that a fight was finally happening.

Daisy stood up, staggering. She had to find the strength she needed to continue, she could not allow herself to collapse again.

'' Come on.'' May provoked her, raising her fists. ''Come on, Quake.''

Daisy realized with a nauseating clench in her gut that whatever was going to happen next, it was going to be awful for the both of them. She held her right arm out and the ground shook a little as the girl sent a weak pulse against May, enough to knock the older woman down.

'' Is this all you have?'' May growled, staggering to her feet. Her injured knee wasn't helping, but she managed to get up. And that was all she did. She got up and just stood there, waiting for her student to hit her again.

Daisy raised her hand again and sent another pulse of air towards May and milliseconds later she saw her mentor fly off her feet, crashing into the wall and landing several meters away from her. She didn't move, and Daisy suddenly felt sick. She had to resist the urge to rush to her mentor's side. The sick feeling gripped her stomach tighter, because there was no time to fix this.

And because this was definitely not the plan she and Simmons had thought of.

'' Get up.'' She shouted, walking slowly towards Melinda. '' Get up, May.'' Her voice was broken, and it sounded a lot more like she was begging May to wake up rather than provoking her to a fight.

The older woman was desperately trying to breathe, but the fire in her chest wouldn't let her. She needed oxygen, she knew it, but her lung was probably punctured and failing her now that she needed air the most. Her heart was racing, struggling to keep beating.

Daisy fell to her knees next to May. ''May.'' She whispered. Her hand darted to her mentor's neck, checking her pulse. '' May, please, breathe.''

The pain was overwhelming. It had been for a while now. And May had had enough pain in her life, to be honest. But she certainly wasn't going to waste her last seconds with her kid thinking about all the bad things that had happened.

'' May.'' She could hear Daisy calling her, _begging_ her, and she tried not to succumb to the darkness, not just yet, because despite what most people thought, she was not a robot. She was a human with a beating heart, and there was nothing more typical for humans than to ask for a little more time with the people that made their hearts worth beating.

The ground beneath them was starting to shake heavily and May could feel Daisy lose control of her powers, she could feel her getting ready to bring down the whole world with them. It took everything she had to lift her hand and grab Daisy's. ''Focus.'' She husked out, coughing up some blood as she spoke. '' Like we practiced.''

Daisy ran a trembling hand over May's face, cupping her pale cheek. '' Please, May.'' She whimpered. '' Just hold on, okay?''

May nodded and the girl looked up, searching for Simmons up at the gallery. It was now or never. She locked eyes with her and Jemma nodded too, her face stained with tears but at the same time braver than ever.

 _Do it. You have to do it._

Daisy placed her hand over May's chest and sent a pulse directly to her heart.

* * *

Everything was quiet for a second, and then it wasn't. A guard approached to check May's pulse and right after that declared Quake the winner of the fight.

A few cheered, others clapped their hands. Nobody expected what happened next.

Daisy felt the quakes work their way down to her fingertips. She had to be careful. She had to be precise. Eliminating everyone would have been the easy thing to do. But everyone included Jemma, and May, and herself. So, she needed to find a more refined approach.

 _Just like we practiced._

She didn't have time to think about May now. May, who lay dying next to her. May, whose heart had stopped beating because of her. She had to finish them off quickly, and then go back and save her too. One quake would be enough to restart her heart. Or so she hoped.

The first quake took out the guard that was closest to her. Daisy let out a scream, as she sent another lethal quake against Casius, shattering his body. More Kree showed up and everyone met the same fate as their heartless lord. They were the ones that so desperately wanted to see the Destroyer of Worlds in action.

Well, there she was.

 _You have to be quick_. Jemma had explained in the note she had slipped in her friend's pocket sometime before the fight. _Kill whatever opponent they send your way_ _and we'll take it from there. Just don't bring the whole base down._

No one had told her what to do in case the opponent was Melinda May. Not even someone as thorough as Simmons could have predicted that.

* * *

Daisy couldn't tell how much time had passed when they were finally the only ones standing. She saw Jemma fall to her knees to perform CPR on May.

'' No!'' She yelled, but Jemma couldn't hear her. '' No, stop it!'' She rushed to her side, ignoring the throbbing pain in her arms and her nose that was bleeding profusely and making breathing an almost impossible task.

She shoved Jemma away, staining the biologist's clothes with blood too. '' I can do this.'' She promised. She placed her right hand over May's chest again and did what she was taught to do. Control her powers in order to save lives.

'' How long has she been like this?'' She asked and Jemma must have read her lips, because she raised four fingers in response. _Four minutes._

'' Fuck.'' Daisy blinked back tears and wiped at her nose with her sleeve. She had been bleeding all over May's body. ''I have to restart her heart.'' She said, talking mostly to herself.

Simmons tried to intervene again but Daisy shoved her hands away, more forcefully this time. '' Let me do this!'' She yelled. Jemma took a few steps back, not because she was afraid of Daisy, but because she knew that there was nothing she could do to help at that moment. Daisy's powers were the closest thing they had to a defibrillator.

''Come on, May.'' Daisy sent one more pulse to her mentor's heart, screaming in pain. Her arm was broken, again. Nevertheless, she kept going. '' May, you can't leave me now.'' She mumbled. ''Please, wake up.''

But May's face was grey now, smeared with her own blood and also Daisy's. She was gone and Jemma knew it, but couldn't bring herself to let her friend know.

It took her forty minutes to build up the courage to tell Daisy to stop.

 _Daisy_. Simmons approached her softly, kneeling next to her. _Come on, sweetheart, you are hurting yourself._ She tried to gently get a hold of Daisy's arms, and the girl only resisted for a few seconds before letting Jemma drag her away from May's body.

'' We...we had a plan.'' Daisy whimpered, unable to take her eyes off of May. '' We had-''

 _I know._ Simmons wrapped her arms around her friend's bloodied form. _I'm sorry, Daisy._

Daisy shook her head, pulling away from the embrace. She was exhausted. Her arms hurt so much that she thought she was about to faint. '' You trusted me.'' She whispered as she fell to her knees again and buried her face in May's neck. '' I'm sorry, May. I'm sorry.'' She lay there next to Melinda, their bodies pressed together for the last time.

She knew it now, now that it didn't matter anymore. There had never been a plan good enough for everyone to make it out alive.

* * *

 **It's not like they are going to do _that_ on the show, so calm down. ****If you have any thoughts on the story, let me know. Thank you for reading! :)**


End file.
